Let me start by saying I was absolutely ecstatic to find this book! I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, and when I discovered he had a follow up book, Before Happiness: the 5 hidden keys to achieving success, spreading happiness, and sustaining positive change, I immediately downloaded the audiobook and went to the library to check out the hardcopy of it. The Happiness Advantage was one of the first books I read when I began to enjoy reading as a pass time in my adult life.
Shawn talks about being a, “positive genius”, in this book. I’ve understood this concept for a few years however, I liked to call it, “looking on the bright side.” Its easy for me to see what some call faults or discrepancies but I’ve always seen them in a more positive way, an opportunity for progress and improvement. I once took a personality test with my company and my results write up said, “You always find everything that is wrong.” In my mind, that sounded far to negative to describe me, so I literally took a pen and crossed it off and noted in the margin that I wasn’t looking for things that are wrong but rather, areas for improvement. I continued to read through this and mark things I agreed with and crossed off things that made it sound like I was some type of Negative Nancy, rewording and rewriting bits and pieces so that it better described my personality. I pride myself with positivity and progress and had to take a moment to reflect and finally agree with what the first page had said, “you always find everything that is wrong.” I had to affirm to myself that the word, “wrong,” had nothing to do with who I am as a person, it was simply a matter-of-fact way of saying in in a way that is easily understood by many. I like to think in the bigger picture, which is why it took me a few pages into this personality write up to zoom out and reflect as a whole.
Early in this book he uses an analogy about the glass half full/half empty concept and how a positive genius would recognize that these two options are not the only choices and that in reality, there is a full pitcher to refill the glass. Shawn describes a positive genius as someone who is able to see beyond optimism. A positive genius isn’t someone who just sees through rose-colored glasses and thinks that everything is good, rather someone who can recognize both the positive and the negative and realize there is a benefit for both.
Another important thing to note about a positive genius is that they prime their thoughts with a positive reality. There are numerous studies that conclude that taking the time to think about a situation in a positive manner optimizes our ability for success. An example Shawn uses to describe this is when someone who is feeling negative and going on a hike, may perceive the mountain as higher or further away. A negative mindset is likely to prime you to even perceive that your pack is heavier than it actually is. Our perceived reality about the world depends more on how we think about the world than how it actually is.
There are five “keys” that Shawn discusses in this book. **I’ll elaborate later in the week, once I get more time to focus on this.**
- Reality Architecture, “choosing the most valuable reality”.
- Mental Cartography, “mapping paths to success”.
- The X-Spot, ” using success accelerants”.
- Noise Canceling, ” boosting the signal by eliminating the noise”.
- Positive Inception, “transferring your reality to others”.
Life is Lovely 